Songs
by Oni-Gil
Summary: While a prisoner of the Organization, Kairi receives hope from an unexpected source.
1. Melody

**A/N:** Hum. I forget where this idea came from, actually. I'm not even sure if it fits with the timeline of the game... no, on second thought, I'm pretty sure it does. So enjoy.

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The worst thing, Kairi decided very quickly, was lack of company. The cold was bad, yes, as was the hunger gnawing at her empty stomach, but really, she was lonely. She had been content to spend time in blissful solitude on the Islands, imagining the happy day when Sora and Riku returned, but there she had had the sound of the waves, the birds winging through the sky.

Here in this cold world of silver and black, there was no sound. If there was wind, she couldn't feel it. There were no birds or fish, only the strange, grey creatures, and of course her captors.

She wasn't sure whether they counted as company, however. Thus far, none of her guards had said a word. Only the blond man with all the piercings even acknowledged her existence, and she could have done without that… he stared at her in a way which made her very uncomfortable. Once she looked up to see the man with the ponytail sitting upside-down on the ceiling, which startled a laugh from her. At the sound, he turned to stare at her with one molten gold eye, and she clapped her hands over her mouth.

The first sign that the guard was changing was always the sound of a dark portal opening outside the bars. This particular time, Kairi had her back to the room at large and was busy petting the dog, whose collar proclaimed him to be "Pluto." The dark path opened with its trademark "splash," and although Pluto didn't open his eyes, his ears perked up and his tail thumped against the floor. Curious, Kairi turned to observe her most recent guard.

He looked young, maybe not too much older than Riku. His hair was a light tawny and very messy. He looked at her and smiled, and she saw that his eyes were blue. For some reason, she suddenly felt a lot more relaxed than she had been. It wasn't that his eyes were blue— the blond man had blue eyes, and his stare unnerved her— but that they were the color of the sea, and she had always felt safe near the ocean.

The young man took a seat nearby. At first he looked away, but she caught him stealing glances at her as the minutes wore on.

Finally, he turned in his seat.

"Hi," he said. "What's your name?"

Kairi was taken aback. It was the first time that one of them had spoken to her since her arrival here.

"I'm Kairi," she said without thinking. "What's yours?"

"What a pretty name!" he replied, grinning. It was a nice grin, and she couldn't help but smile a little back. "I'm Demyx. How're you doing?"

Kairi shifted awkwardly.

"I'm a little hungry," she admitted. Demyx jumped to his feet.

"What kind of food do you like?" he asked. Kairi blinked.

"Um, just a sandwich would be fine," she answered.

"Is peanut butter okay?"

Kairi shrugged, and he vanished into a dark corridor. She looked down at Pluto.

"What do you think, boy?" she asked. "Is he a friend?"

The dog wagged his tail and licked her hand.

Demyx returned a few minutes later, bearing a plate and a glass of milk. He passed them to her through the bars.

"I hope it's all right," he said anxiously. "Xaldin would have been the bet, but he's on a mission, and I didn't have the nerve to ask anyone else."

A bit apprehensive, Kairi took a bite.

"It's good," she assured him through a full mouth. His smile was positively radiant.

"Really?" he asked.

"Without a doubt," she replied.

"I asked a Dusk to bring food and water for the dog, but I'm not sure if it'll obey me," Demyx said, looking around.

"Why wouldn't it?" Kairi wondered. Demyx looked embarrassed.

"I'm kinda new here," he said. "Plus, I'm not much of a fighter. I don't think they take me seriously. Maybe I should have gotten a Dancer to do it…"

He prattled on as she ate, something about the merits of Dusks and Dancers and how annoying Snipers were and how the Berserkers scared him. His voice was comforting, in a way. Its oddness alone made her smile, even if she didn't understand half of what he was talking about.

The Dusk did eventually appear with a pair of bowls for Pluto, who barked at it until it had set them down and disappeared. Kairi heard Demyx laugh and giggled a bit herself.

Demyx hummed when he was bored, she soon found out. At first she couldn't figure out where the quiet music was coming from, but she doubted that Pluto could sing, and her guard was the only other person.

"That was a nice song," she said when he was finished. He jumped, as though he'd forgotten she was there.

"Really?" he asked, his face breaking into a nervous smile. She nodded.

"I've never heard it before," she said.

"It's from one of the worlds I went to," he said, and he sounded excited. His eyes were lit. Obviously, this was a subject he was interested in. "It seems like every world I go to has different songs."

"Do you remember every song you hear?" Kairi asked curiously. Demyx shrugged.

"Yeah," he replied. "I always had a good memory for music. I like to learn their songs. You know, you can learn a lot about the people of a world through the kinds of songs that they sing."

He hesitated.

"Do… do you want me to sing you some?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure," Kairi answered, nodding emphatically. "I'd love it."

"Okay," Demyx said, beaming. He raised his arm and, in a wash of bubbles, a large stringed instrument appeared. Kairi wondered if he used this as a weapon, since she'd seen the one-eyed man polishing the guns he summoned in much the same way.

"I hope you don't mind this," he said. "Some people don't like a sitar's sound, and it's not really made for this kind of music, and…"

"It's okay," Kairi interrupted. Demyx smiled anxiously and began the song.

He had a nice singing voice, which was very different from his speaking voice. The "sitar" twanged along, and although it seemed discordant at first, she gradually got used to it. The songs he sang were vastly different in style, the lyrics speaking of different things. As she listened, however, she could sense the basic similarities between all worlds, the common threads woven into every heart.

The most amazing thing about Demyx's songs was the way they made her feel. Some made her laugh, others filled her with the sort of bittersweet joy she had come to associate with nostalgia.

His last song made her chest tighten and a lump rise in her throat. He looked up at her and promptly dropped his sitar, which vanished in more bubbles.

"Oh, jeez," he said, hurrying over. "Kairi, I'm really sorry, are you okay?"

"Y-yeah," she sobbed, wiping tears away. "The-that song w-was really s-sad."

"Really?" Demyx asked, frowning slightly. "I mean, it's sad, but why are you crying?"

"How can you n-_not_ be crying?" Kairi asked, sniffing. Demyx flinched.

"I… well, I…"

He stopped as a dark path opened nearby. The scary-looking man with blue hair stepped out, and Demyx scrambled away from the bars.

"Um, h-hi, Saïx," he stammered. "I… I was just getting ready to go. I… yeah. Yeah, that's right. I. Well. Bye, then."

He cast an apologetic look at Kairi as he departed. Saïx made an annoyed nose in his throat and took up his post. Kairi could feel his gaze on her as she discreetly wiped her face, trying not to sob.

"Why are you crying?" her new guard asked at last. His voice was very low and controlled.

"Because I'm sad," Kairi replied, glaring at him. His scarred face was impassive.

"You're lucky," he said. "Be grateful that you can even feel sorrow, Kairi. Those with hearts should be thankful, for they have what we lack."

"Hearts?" Kairi asked. Pluto growled softly. "You mean… you don't have harts?"

Saïx wouldn't speak again for the remainder of his time there.

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"Is it true?" Kairi asked the moment Demyx next appeared. He blinked at her uncomprehendingly. "Is it true that you don't have hearts?"

Demyx's face fell.

"Yes, we do," he said, although he looked uncertain. "We have hearts. Of _course_ we have hearts."

"Who are you trying to convince?" Kairi asked. "Me or you?"

Demyx looked crestfallen.

"Come on, Kairi," he begged. "I have a heart. I just… it… I just can't hear it right now. It's singing a different song than I am, okay? But I have a heart. I've got to have a heart. I couldn't make music if I didn't, right?"

He looked so pitiful that Kairi couldn't help feeling sorry for him.

"Convince me," she said. "Play for me again."

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Demyx's shifts became the high point of Kairi's days. He always brought her food, either a sandwich or some exotic fare from whatever world he had been to. He brought new songs with him as well and played for her all the time. For some reason, he brought her colored pencils and a drawing pad.

"I thought you might like them," was his only explanation, along with a mysterious smile.

It helped to pass the time while he wasn't there. She drew Pluto often. Other times she drew Sora and Riku, or the three of them on the Island. Selphie, Tidus, Wakka and the rest, she drew. She doodled Heartless and Dusks. Once she drew Ansem, but the dog ate it. She drew what she thought Roxas looked like, then crumpled it up. She drew Demyx playing the sitar, or Axel, or even Saïx and the others. She showed every picture to Demyx. No matter how awful it was, he always smiled and said, "That's great, Kairi!"

Between songs, he told her about all the different worlds he'd been to. She had a feeling that he held back some things, such as what he'd done there, but the effort and detail he put into his stories inspired her. She tried drawing the worlds he described, while he peeked through the bars to correct her.

She never brought up what Saïx had mentioned again, but she knew that either of them had forgotten.

Kairi was so used to the pattern that she was surprised when, one day, Demyx didn't come. She waited through the blond man's—Luxord's—stares and Xaldin's silences. At last, she worked up her courage and moved to the bars, looking out at Xigbar.

"Excuse me," she said, and he turned to regard her. "Um… is Demyx coming back soon?"

The one-eyed gaze turned frosty.

"No," Xigbar said. "He isn't coming back."

"Ever?"

"Never," the man said shortly. "You can thank you buddy Sora for that."

Kairi's stomach clenched horribly and she shrank back, turning to escape his furious glare.

"Sora," she whispered, but her happiness was muted.

Learning of Sora's safety had come at a terrible price.

Kairi's hands were trembling as she tried to draw Sora, Donald, and Goofy. She set the picture aside and began a new one.

She tried, but she couldn't make the tawny hair soft. The sea-colored eyes wouldn't dance. The smile wasn't bright enough. She couldn't bring the picture to life, make him sing, make him laugh again…

Even when her eyes blurred, she couldn't imagine that the picture was moving, and all her tears achieved only smudges.

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**A/N:** Did you cry?

Review or Demyx's ghost (WAAAH! T.T) will haunt you forever.


	2. Harmony

**A/N:** Betcha didn't expect a second chapter... haha, neither did I. XD This and the one after were written as a request-y thing I owed LATMC. Enjoy! And cry lots for me! 

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She wasn't, Demyx decided, quite what he'd expected her to look like. Certainly she didn't resemble the other Princesses of Heart that he'd seen. She didn't have that quiet dignity and grace that the others had, and he was _quite_ sure that none of the others had a large yellow dog for a companion.

Even so, the Nobody could feel her light from where he sat. And if he looked at her right, well. It was obvious she was of noble blood, a _real_ princess.

She looked lonely. Demyx knew how she felt: he was often lonely, surrounded by faceless Dusks. He often felt set apart form the rest of the Organization, just because he insisted that he had a heart. How could he not? He had never heard of anyone without a heart.

To someone like Demyx, just sitting there and staring at a girl who couldn't possibly escape anyway was torture. Finally, he worked up his courage and turned to face her.

"Hi," he said. "What's your name?"

She looked startled. Right away, Demyx wished he had remained silent. Was he going to get into trouble for talking to her?

"I'm Kairi," she said. "What's yours?"

"What a pretty name!" he replied, grinning. It _was_ a nice name, and it struck a good chord within him. Maybe he should ask Zexion if it meant anything…

Oh. Right.

How strange, that even a year after the ones who went to Oblivion… disappeared? died?... he still expected to see them. In the halls, at meetings, at the breakfast table… he was no diviner like Saïx, but he thought he could sense the paths they had traced in their second lives, habits that had held them together and insisted that they would return at any moment.

Oops, she'd asked him a question.

"I'm Demyx," he stammered, racking his brain for polite small talk. "How're you doing?"

"I'm a little hungry," Kairi answered. Demyx jumped up. He didn't know much about royalty, but he knew they probably shouldn't be starved.

"What kind of food do you like?" he asked. He hoped it wasn't too complicated. Xaldin was on a mission and the others would only laugh at him.

"Um, just a sandwich would be fine."

Oh, good. Something he could make without blowing up the kitchen.

"Is peanut butter okay?" he asked, and Kairi nodded.

Demyx portaled to the kitchen and immediately wished he'd bowed or something. At least an "I'll be right back" would have been good, but _no_, he'd just dashed out…

He sent a Dusk to find some dog food and turned his attention to making a sandwich. Even _he_ couldn't possibly mess up a sandwich. He'd just gotten the peanut butter jar open when he heard a familiar chuckle from behind him.

"I thought you were on guard duty, mister."

Demyx almost dropped the peanut butter in his haste to turn around.

_It's okay. Be cool. You're a Nobody, too. Play it cool, like him. Cool._

"She's hungry," he said defensively, automatically looking up. Xigbar had just strolled in and was hanging upside-down to look over Demyx's shoulder. "I thought it might be better not to starve the hostage."

"Yeah, I get it. But send a Dusk next time. That chick's supposed to have crazy Light powers," Xigbar pointed out.

"It's not 'chick,' it's Kairi," Demyx said. A split-second later, Xigbar was right-side up, so close that their noses were practically touching.

"What'd you say?" he demanded. Demyx gulped, wondering what he'd done wrong this time.

"Her name is Kairi," he stuttered.

Xigbar was gone in an instant. He hadn't even used a proper portal, either, just teleported away. The elders were _so_ weird, Demyx thought with a shrug, and went back to making the sandwich.

To his intense embarrassment, Demyx found himself babbling as Kairi ate. She couldn't understand a word of it, probably, but she was too polite to say so. She smiled anyway, and that made him feel nice inside, right where his heart should have been.

Demyx didn't even realize that he was humming until Kairi said, "That was a nice song." He felt a blush creep over his cheeks and tried to hide it with a smile.

"Really?" he asked. None of the other Organization members had even mentioned enjoying his music before. The Dancers did all the time, but then, all specialized Nobodies would stand up for their masters.

"Without a doubt," she replied. A princess, _and_ she had good taste in music! Demyx beamed.

"It's from one of the worlds I went to," he said eagerly. "It seems like every world I go to has different songs."

"Do you remember every song you hear?" Kairi asked. She seemed genuinely curious! Demyx shrugged modestly, trying to hide his enthusiasm.

"Yeah. I always had a good memory for music," he said, and thought of Deym for the first time in a long while, and Deym's songs. "You know, you can learn a lot about the people of a world through the kinds of songs they sing."

He hesitated for a moment, but even without a heart, he couldn't resist a captive (literally) audience.

"Do… do you want me to sing you some?" he asked hopefully.

Yes, she did. Wow. What a girl… Sora didn't know how lucky he was, to have someone like this.

It was things like this that made Demyx wonder if he didn't have a heart after all, when he could summon his sitar and strike tune after tune off its strings, melody and harmony and dissonance and how his voice sang along, every part of him knowing its place in the music. Songs flew from his throat and he twisted his tongue around it, giving it meaning in the form of lyrics, recalling every syllable exactly as he'd heard it, even from other languages.

It was nice to have an audience again, to be able to pull Kairi's heartstrings as easily as any puppet master, playing her emotions as easily as he played his sitar. He sang songs from other worlds, songs from Deym's world, songs Deym had written and were etched into his soul even after his heart had gone. He sang about hate, and love, and pretty women, and dragons, and turnips.

His music was never _quite_ as good as Deym's, he reflected mournfully. When he played, there was something missing. To his practiced ears, it felt hollow. It was like he took the heart from every song he played.

As if she could feel the raw emptiness gaping in his chest, Kairi was crying.

Demyx was so surprised that he dropped his sitar. He dashed to the bars.

"Oh, jeez," he moaned. "Kairi, I'm really sorry, are you okay?"

She nodded, wiping her eyes and stammering out a response through sobs. He scarcely heard her.

"Why are you crying?" he asked. She stared at him through reddened eyes.

"How can you _not_ be crying?" she asked. Her words bit deep, and Demyx drew away slightly. How could he respond to that? Admit that he had lost the steady flow of melody inside of him?

Demyx hadn't thought it was possible to be happy to see Saïx, but he was then the Diviner appeared a moment later. He stammered excuses, backing away from Kairi's cage, then made a hasty exit.

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When Demyx arrived for his next shift of guarding the Princess, she was glaring at him.

"Is it true?" she demanded. He couldn't think what she meant. "Is it true that you don't have hearts?"

Demyx felt a pang in his chest. No. Would she trust him? Like him? Listen to him?"

"Yes, we do," he insisted, but his protests felt hollow. "We have hearts. Of _course_ we have hearts."

"Who are you trying to convince?" Kairi asked, and Demyx blanched. "Me or you?"

Demyx tried to find the proper words.

"Come on, Kairi. I have a heart. I just… it… I just can't hear it right now. It's singing a different song that I am, okay? But I have a heart. I've got to have a heart."

He offered one last feeble excuse.

"I couldn't make music if I didn't, right?"

Her face softened.

"Convince me," she said. "Play for me again."

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Demyx never knew where he found the courage to confront Saïx, but he did.

"Why did you tell her?" he demanded. Saïx was unimpressed.

"Why not tell her?" he asked in return. "Why do you insist on lying to yourself, Number Nine?"

And he left, just like that, leaving Demyx stunned.

"I'm not lying to myself!" he said out loud, although there was no one around to hear him.

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Being with Kairi felt right. Maybe it was because she was a Princess from the realm of Light and filled the empty space in his chest.

Or maybe it felt good to have someone listening, to pretend he was still a boy named Deym and not a man named Demyx.

If he was lacking a melody in his core, then at least he could be the harmony to Kairi's song.

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It was Luxord who surprised him next by giving him a box of colored pencils and a sketchpad.

"For Naminé," he explained.

"Kairi," Demyx corrected automatically. Luxord accepted this with an amiable nod, smiling in his mysterious way.

"Of course," he agreed. "It might help her to have something to keep her busy."

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Demyx tried imitating that mysterious smile of Luxord's when he gave her the art supplies. Kairi drew while he sang, and he liked to watch. She didn't quite reach Naminé's level, but he had expected that. She impressed him with her projects. She drew Demyx often, and together they laughed over upside-down stick figures or stern cartoony Saïxes. She doodled her friends from the Islands, and Riku, and Sora. She even drew a perfect Roxas. Demyx kept it to himself that he knew the boy in the picture when she asked. Still, it was uncanny, the way she'd known what he looked like. He had heard that the entire square of Sora-Roxas-Naminé-Kairi was linked somehow, but he had never really understood how. But perhaps Kairi knew Roxas in her heart, although not in her mind.

"Oh, that's probably not him at all," she sighed after a while, and crumpled the picture up to throw away. A Dancer snatched it from her hand and made off with it despite Demyx's threats.

"I thought it was good," was all Demyx would say about it.

If a Nobody stayed around Kairi long enough, Demyx thought, it might regain its heart. He didn't know whether or not this was a good thing. Would he be Demyx-with-a-heart, or would all traces of Demyx, everything he had learned, be erased? Would Deym know the value of his heart and not so trustingly give it away?

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In the end, he never found out.

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Demyx had gone to Hollow Bastion to make sure his Dancers were all right. The others scoffed at him for caring so much about his servants, but they weren't just faceless Nobodies to him. To the Nocturne, each Dancer had a name, a past that they just couldn't quite reach, and a song, countless harmonies without a melody to guide them. He couldn't just drop them among a thousand Heartless and one heartless Key-Bearer. That would be too cruel.

Demyx wasn't a fighter, any more than Deym had been. He was a musician who just happened to be stubborn enough to retain his memory.

Strangely enough, all he hoped as he faded was that someone with a heart… someone like Kairi… would use it to mourn for him.


	3. Dissonance

Their memories… well, all of them used a different term. Zexion had been fond of "fluctuated." Lexaeus would have said something like "ebbed and flowed." Xaldin probably would compare them to the air in most worlds—blowing in a torrent one moment, deathly still the next. Vexen would have said something aptly scientific.

Xemnas would say nothing.

As for Xigbar, he had nothing as poetic to say. To him, memories were just annoying little wisps of something that wasn't there anymore. Sometimes he remembered a boy named Braig who lived in a castle with all his friends, and sometimes he couldn't. That was all.

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When he could remember, he tried not to.

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She'd pulled his ponytail one time too many.

"Do you want me to let Xehanort babysit you instead?" Braig threatened, and she went from giggling to sober in an instant. She didn't like Xehanort, for whatever reason. Braig swallowed back guilt.

"Good," he grumbled. "So stop pulling my hair, you little terror."

A beam split her face and he couldn't help but smile. She had that way with people, a way to make everyone smile.

"Mouse!" she said, pointing over his shoulder. Braig turned to see a tiny figure walking by the windows.

"Yes," he replied, for the fifteenth time. "That's right, he's a mouse. Want to play?"

"Want ice cream."

"You're gonna get fat. Look, there's Elaeus. You like Elaeus. Go climb him."

With a squeal of delight, she trotted off, her arms outstretched. Braig watched Elaeus pick her up as though she weighed no more than a feather and put her on his shoulders. She was obviously pleased with her new horsie and pointed back towards Braig.

"I believe you lost this," Elaeus said, coming over. Braig groaned.

"Why does she like me?" he moaned. "Why not you? You're good with kids. Why not Even? He's her freaking brother."

"Adopted brother."

"Whatever, she doesn't know the difference. I don't even like kids."

But anyone would make an exception for her. She was just too adorable.

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If only he could remember her name.

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It was one of _those_ days, Xigbar thought, irritably drumming his fingers on one of his guns. One of the days where things just slipped away. One of the days where he could hear the Falls in the back of his mind but couldn't remember where they had been, or know the name "Braig" but not remember for the life of him what Xaldin's name had been, or remember what Ansem had looked like because Xehanort kept replacing him, even in their memories.

It was also, evidently, one of those days when Demyx decided he wanted to play cook. Xigbar backtracked a few steps on the ceiling—where he walked when he didn't want to be disturbed—and grinned as he looked into the kitchen.

"I thought you were on guard duty, mister," he said. Demyx jumped so badly that he almost dropped the knife and peanut butter, and Xigbar chuckled.

"She's hungry," Demyx said, and that was funny too. Xigbar liked it when Demyx tried to stand up for himself. "I thought it might be better not to starve the hostage."

Xigbar's grin widened. The kid sounded like a bad gangster movie. Let him think he was in trouble, eh? It was fun to scare IX.

"Yeah, I get it," he drawled. "But send a Dusk next time. That chick's supposed to have crazy Light powers."

Demyx's lip stiffened and Xigbar was surprised. The Nocturne was sticking up for the Princess now?

"It's not 'chick,'" the musician said. "It's Kairi."

It was like a floodgate opening, as though the name had been the key to the rusty doors of his memory. He flipped right-side-up and grabbed Demyx by the shoulders.

"What'd you say?" he demanded hoarsely.

"Her name's Kairi," Demyx stammered. It was enough. Xigbar pushed away, teleporting to the Altar of Naught. The name was halfway out of his throat already as he appeared.

"Xemnas!"

The Superior was right where he always was these days, staring up at the half-finished Kingdom Hearts above. Xigbar seized him by the front of his coat, pulling him close.

"You knew, didn't you?" he growled. He saw a bristle of blue out of the corner of his eye and glared at Saïx. "Shoo," he said. The Diviner hesitated, teeth half-bared, but a nod from his master made him reluctantly pull away.

"Knew what?" Xemnas asked, hands coming up to try to pry Xigbar's fingers off. When that failed, he let himself be held, remaining coolly aloof.

"About Kairi?" Xigbar prompted. He may have imagined it, but there was a flicker of something-or-other in Xemnas' face.

"Who?"

Xigbar made an annoyed noise in his throat.

"You know perfectly well. The Princess of Heart. Sora's little girlfriend. It's not a common name, Xemnas. Kairi. _The_ Kairi. You know, the redhead we've got locked up right now? Ansem's_daughter_?"

Xemnas looked down, again trying to pry Xigbar off of him, but the Freeshooter would not be moved.

"I know her," he said, the picture of cool detachment. "You mean you didn't recognize her?"

"Why didn't you tell us that she was alive?" Xigbar demanded.

"I didn't think it mattered," Xemnas said. Xigbar snorted in disbelief, finally letting go, pushing him away.

"You never change, you know that?" he said, unable to keep up the charade of anger for long. Xemnas' smile was as empty as the rest of him. It felt like a black hole, and even Xigbar couldn't look at it for long. He stared up at the heart-shaped moon, letting out his breath in a long sigh before looking back.

"Did you ever think things would end up like this?" he asked.

Xemnas' face was eerily blank of any emotion. But then, it had always been that way.

"Yes," he said softly. "Perhaps I knew it all along."

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He stared at her the next time he was on duty. The more he looked, the more familiar she became. That nose she had inherited from her mother, the stubborn mouth, the eyes, as blue as her father's had been before being tainted by darkness. She glared right back, mistrusting, but she had softened. Demyx had probably told her some crap about him being a big softie.

"What?" she asked at last. "Is there something on my face?"

Xigbar half-grinned.

"Nope," he answered. "Just thinking how much you look like your dad."

Surprise flashed across her face. She drew closer to the bars, looking curiously up at him.

"You know my father?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, I knew him," II replied. He couldn't think of the proper emotion to put into his voice, so he settled for none. Kairi didn't seem to care.

"Where is he? _Who_ is he?" she asked. Xigbar weighed his options, then grinned.

"Why should I tell you?" he countered.

"Because it's _polite_," she said. Xigbar laughed.

"Kairi, Kairi, Kairi," he drawled. "What gave you the impression that I was polite?"

She folded her arms and sat with her back to him. There was a long silence. Then Xigbar spoke again.

"For all I know, he's dead."

They said nothing more.

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Xigbar went home for the first time in a few years at the first excuse he got: confirm Demyx's death. The Nocturne's plate in the Proof of Existence had suddenly gone red. The Dancers were in a state of shock. He found a group of them clumped where the city's main gate had once been, staring at the decorative mosaics on the ground. He dismissed them with a wave. Soon all of the Dancers would either perish or devolve into regular Dusks, whichever came first. The same thing had happened with the servants of those who had gone to Oblivion.

He kicked a loose rock around for a while. It seemed like the Organization was done for. There were five of them left now, not counting Axel. Five out of thirteen.

It didn't seem right, that Demyx was gone. He was one of those people who seems like a constant presence, like you can turn and they'll be there. Demyx hadn't been like the rest of them. He'd been something totally different. Sora didn't know what he'd done. No, the kid just tromped around in huge shoes, swinging a Keyblade left and right, and the Organization was paying the price.

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"Hey," Xigbar said to Xaldin. "You know Kairi?"

"Who?"

"Never mind."

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"Excuse me… Um… is Demyx coming back soon?"

Stupid Sora.

"No. He isn't coming back."

"Ever?"

"Never. You can thank your buddy Sora for that."

Stupid Sora, never make a girl cry.

"Hey," he said. She looked up from her drawing of IX, red-eyed. He hesitated. "Don't cry, okay?"

"Why not?" she answered. "Saïx said I should like being able to feel."

"Don't cry," Xigbar repeated, feeling Braig in his voice. "'Cause…"

_'Cause it makes me feel terrible._

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_**A/N:**_ You like? You review?� You cry?_  
_


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